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A 3-year-old boy who was born with a birth defect that left him with intestines that formed outside his abdomen is recovering after undergoing a five-organ transplant at a Miami hospital. NBC 6's Diana Gonzalez reports. (Published Tuesday, Dec 17, 2013)

A 3-year-old boy who was born with a birth defect that left him with intestines that formed outside his abdomen is recovering after undergoing a five-organ transplant at a Miami hospital.

Adonis Ortiz received a new liver, pancreas, stomach and small and large intestines when he underwent the transplant at Holtz Children’s Hospital at the UM/Jackson Memorial Medical Center in October.

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When Aracelis Ortiz was four months pregnant, she learned that her baby's intestines were protruding through a hole in the abdomen.

“He only had 28 centimeters of intestines. A normal baby has 250,” she added.

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Ortiz decided to go through with the pregnancy and Adonis was born at 36 weeks in Tampa on Dec. 7, 2010. He underwent his first surgery to repair the defect and doctors discovered the intestines that had formed outside his abdomen were damaged and the intestines inside never fully developed.

He underwent two more procedures but his condition worsened and other organs in his abdomen were compromised. In August, Adonis was diagnosed with stage 2 liver fibrosis, and doctors determined he was in need of a multivisceral transplant, which he underwent at Jackson in October.

Adonis became the first child his age in the world to receive a multivisceral transplant without a colostomy, an opening that connects the colon to the surface of the abdomen. The procedure is intended to keep him from having to have additional surgeries.

He still needs a feeding tube. But Ortiz said doctors expect her son to make a full recovery.

"We’ve gone through some ups and down, but I never lost faith," his mother said in a statement. "I’m happy and excited with his progress."